The Larger Venture

The subject tonight is “The Larger Venture.” Sir Winston Churchill made the statement that “The destiny of mankind is not determined by material computation. But when great causes are on the move in the world, then we realize that we are spirits, not animals, and that something is going on in space and time and beyond space and time, which, whether you believe it or not, spells duty.” Now you and I, today, we have a certain duty. If you are not satisfied with the being that you are, then you have a definite responsibility to be the being that you want to be. That’s scripture. And so, causes are moving in the world…and you and I can be the being that we want to be.

Let me turn now to the 20th chapter of 1st Kings. It’s a fantastic chapter. Read the entire thing when you go home tonight, I’ll only just cover it lightly. But a prophet, an unknown prophet, said to a fellow, “Strike me, at the command of God” and he didn’t. He said, “Because you did not obey the command of the Lord, as you depart from me you will be killed by a lion.” And so, as he departed he was killed by a lion. Then he said to another fellow, “Strike me, at the command of the Lord,” and he struck him and wounded him. Then he disguised himself with a napkin over his eyes and waited for the coming of the king of Israel. Then he said to the king as he came by, “I went into the midst of the battle; and a soldier turned and brought me a man and said to me, ‘Keep him; if by any means he disappears, your life shall be for his life, or else you will give a talent of silver.’ And as your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” And the king said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”

And so, here is a story of man too busy, so busy he substitutes physical action for sustained thought. I give you a man to keep, what man? You tell me what you want to be…that’s the man. I would like to be and you name it—I would like to be this, that or the other man. By man I mean generic man. So the ladies now are in the same boat as it were…the lady that you would like to be, the man that you would like to be. And so, here is a man to keep, but you’re so busy with the thousand and one things—I was here and there, and he was gone. And so, he escaped out of your consciousness. You don’t remain faithful to the man that you want to be, and so the judgment is upon you, and you yourself pass judgment upon yourself. We’re so busy we can’t remain faithful to the assumption that I am that which I want to be, and remain faithful to it. You read it carefully, it’s the 20th chapter of 1st Kings (verse 35). It’s a fantastic story, because he succeeded and succeeded, and then in the very end he was unfaithful. He did not remain faithful to that which he really wanted to be in this world.

Now let me share with you a story. I’ve told it time and again, but after all, the same stories are told over and over again in scripture. They are only in the gospel of John six signs—not called miracles—six signs, six stories. And they’re repeated after 2,000 years because they came from the Lord. Now let me share with you a story I’ve told you unnumbered times. But there are those this night who never heard it before and they should hear it, and you should hear it again. How one remains faithful to that which the Lord proclaims. I was in the army, I was thirty-eight, eligible for discharge; made my application; within four hours it came back “disapproved.” That night I applied God’s principle, his law, and this is his principle—read it in the 37th chapter of the Book of Psalms: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit yourself, your way, to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act” (verse 4). Read it carefully, the 37th chapter of the Book of Psalms. Take delight in the Lord…just delight in the Lord. Well, the word Lord is Yod He Vau He which defined is I AM. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord—the Lord, I AM, Yod He Vau He—trust in him, trust in I AM, and he will act.

So I went to bed. That day I saw the piece of paper, and my captain said, “I’m awfully sorry for you, Neville, but I am very happy that I have a man just like you going through this war with me.” Alright, so he wanted me to go through the war with him, but I didn’t. I wanted to go back to New York City and live a lovely normal life with my wife and my child. So that night I said nothing to my captain, I applied the law; I delighted in the law of the Lord. “Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” My desire was to be in New York City, honorably discharged. That was my desire. How would I now delight in the Lord and the Lord is I AM? So, I assumed that I am in New York City. To prove that I really am in New York City I viewed the world, and I saw it as I would see it were I in New York City, but just as I would see it. Not as vividly as I’m seeing this room now, but I gave it as much of the tones of reality, as much of the sensory vividness as I possibly could muster. I felt it natural as far as I’m concerned, and saw it so clearly in my mind’s eye, and then I slept in my Imagination in New York City.

That very night as I was sound asleep—as you’re told, “He will act.” Listen to the words, “Delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act”—well, that night as I did this he acted. Suddenly before my eyes came a piece of paper, just like the paper I saw that day that I had signed and it came back “Disapproved” and signed by my colonel. Then a hand came out of the nowhere and a hand scratched out the word “Disapproved.” It did not scratch out my colonel’s name; it left the authority of my colonel just as it was. It simply revoked his decision, and a greater authority which was the hand of God wrote in “APPROVED” and wrote it in a bold, bold script above the statement “Disapproved.” Then the voice said to me from the depths of my soul, “That which I have done I have done”—that was his statement. Now he addresses me, “Do nothing.” “Do nothing” he said to me. May I tell you, there are times in this world of ours when the most difficult thing in the world is to do nothing; and yet there are times when the only thing to do is do nothing. And so I woke with the words ringing in my mind. I saw the revision… I saw the whole thing revised. Instead of “Disapproved” I saw it scratched out—“APPROVED.” Then the voice said, “That which I have done I have done.” Now, “Do nothing.”

So I walked for the next nine days in the assumption that it was done. If there was any goldbricker in this world, I was it. Every morning early I would get up…my friends, I wrote their letters for them. I had a Chinese next to me who made my bed for me, and for that I wrote his letter. I had about four or five men in my company that they couldn’t read or write, and they would say to me, “You tell her I love her. You tell her I’m very lonely.” I said, “Alright. You ___(??)” and I would write these letters every week to girls back wherever they were. For that they would do all kinds of things for me. And so for the next nine days I didn’t really appear when they called reveille. Or when they got out and they all called names, they would say Neville Goddard or Goddard, and someone would say, “Here.” I wasn’t there. I was so completely lost in this belief that I am out I didn’t attend any one of these early morning calls, not one. I mean it; I tell you I didn’t attend one. I was out, completely out, because I heard the voice of God, and God said to me, “That which I have done I have done. Do nothing.” And I did nothing, literally. Nine days later, the very colonel who disapproved my request called me in, I didn’t seek him, and here he called me in and then wrote the very word “Approved,” and that day I was on a train for New York City. But I lived in New York City nine days before in this way.

Listen to the words, the 37th chapter of the Book of Psalms, the 3rd and 4th verses: “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” all your desires. “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” Well, didn’t he act that night? Well, who is the Lord? The Lord is I AM; there is no other God in this world, but none. When you meet him it is yourself personified. There is only God in this world, and God is your own wonderful I-am-ness. One day you will meet him, the most majestic being in the world; it’s yourself personified. He personifies himself as you here and puts him through the paces in hope that you’ll remember who projected himself here, and that you will believe in him, and it will come to pass.

So here, this is the greater venture. They were so busy…this king of Israel, so busy he could not keep what was entrusted to him. And the prophet said to him at the very end, “You have passed judgment on yourself.” He thought he was really judging the prophet. Then the prophet took the cloth from his eyes, and this king saw the prophet and realized it was his own judgment: That he had allowed the king of Syria to go free when he was condemned by the Lord. So he had removed this little cloth and said, Alright, so once you pass it on me, you pass it on yourself. Listen to it carefully. “I was in the field in the midst of the battle; and suddenly a soldier came to me and said, ‘Keep this man; you keep him and if by any means he escapes, your life shall be for his life…if by any means.’ And as I was busy here and there, he was gone.” And that is the life of man. I tell you this night you can be the man, the woman, you want to be. Keep it; but if by any means he escapes you, then your life shall be for his life. So I tell you, you name it. You want to be this lady, this man, this person, you name it, but you must keep him. But if by any means he escapes, his life, your life shall be for his life: You remain just as you are. But if you keep him by assuming that you are—as God assumed that he is this being, your being. Every being in this world to become alive God had to assume that he is that being. And he wears me just like an outward garment; he wears you like an outward garment. And so, we are told to wear our assumption just like an outward garment as God wears us like an outward garment.

Here was a lady in New York City…and to show you how this thing works…this lady went into the hospital, many years before, and I met the nurse who took care of her. She was violent. I mean they considered her the incurable case…violent to the point where she could never be let out of this mental hospital. But she was let out. I was not then in her world. She came to my meetings. A lady of means—she had all the money that it took to travel all over the world—and she went off to Europe with her children, leaving behind her a lovely home and her maid. When she returned nine months later, having spent nine months in Paris, there was no furniture. She went to everything in this world that you could call the right thing to do—the police, private detectives, everything—and at the end of quite a long search, no furniture. Then she came to me.

Now she knew my teaching, she came to me before. It never occurred to her to come to me first; she went to the authorities first. And then, we sat in the Silence and she and I agreed that she had her furniture. I asked her to assume that she was sitting in her own place where she had paid the rent, and here, lovely pictures of her children on the piano, and all the things were there, as they ought to be there. She did it. And then she went down to her bank on Madison Avenue, and coming out of the bank she turned in the wrong direction. When she realized her mistake, only one block away, there were these familiar ankles, and it was her maid. She looked up and here’s the maid. She held the maid, no scene. She took the maid into a taxicab and made the maid take her to the place where she had stored the furniture. The maid was waiting for this wealthy woman not to come back. At the end of a year she would dispose of it. She knew the woman’s eccentricity, she’d been in a mental institution, and the maid knew all these things, and simply moved it out after the lady went off to Paris. And out of the nowhere she finds her, when the entire police department and her private detectives in New York City could not find where this furniture was. And she found it, because suddenly she found a man, and I said, “Hold onto this man; don’t let him go.”

Now you are told in the end of the Book of John: So they come into the garden and they’re looking for a savior, one called The Lord Jesus of Nazareth. He said to them, “Whom do you seek?” and they answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” He answered, “I am he” (John18:4). When they heard it they all fell to the ground, as the world falls to the ground when they discover that the savior of their world is their own I-am-ness. They can’t believe it. They’ve been taught to believe that some God in space, something outside of himself, is his God. And one day he discovers my own consciousness is God, the only savior in the world; and when he hears it, all that he believes in falls to the ground as it were. When he regains his composure, he can’t believe it, so he asks the same question. So the one asked the question, “Whom do you seek?” Again they make the same answer, “We seek Jesus of Nazareth” and he replies, “I told you that I am he; now that you’ve found me, let these go, but do not let me go” (verse 8). Don’t let me go after you have found me, but let everything in this world go that you thought could be your protector. Don’t let me go.

So man finds his own wonderful I-am-ness, called in scripture, “The Lord.” So, “Take delight in the Lord”—take delight in the I AM—“and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord (to I AM); trust in the Lord (I AM), and he will act.” And so, man comes and he finds the being that saves him, and it’s his own wonderful human Imagination. So he loses himself in his own wonderful Imagination. But he acts: He creates the scene which would imply the fulfillment of his dream. Then God acts; your own wonderful I-am-ness goes into action after you prepare the scene for him to execute in this world. “By him all things were made; without him there was nothing made that is made.” So I create the scene implying the fulfillment of my dream. And so I’m in New York City and honorably discharged. And that night the grand I AM acts.

So some psychiatrist would tell me, “That was your own imagination.” And when I say no, I wouldn’t say that. “And when you saw the paper come before your eyes and a hand out of the nowhere scratched out the word disapproved and then write in approved, that’s your own imagination.” I said yes it was. “And then the voice said, ‘That which I have done I have done. Do nothing,’ that’s your own imagination.” I said yes…but it worked! So if I have evidence for a thing, what the world thinks about it, it’s no matter. So people tell me, “My own Imagination”…while he remains in the army for the next four years. I had that experience. A very close friend of mine (I haven’t seen him in years) but he was in the army until the other seventeen million were discharged. And I wrote him what I did, but he was a Freudian, and he knew exactly how this thing should not work, so he never applied it. So he remained for the next four years in the army. And to this day he will still not believe it. But he told me himself, “When I come to your meetings, I like it, but I put my feet into the carpet and I stick my hands on the chair and I hold on firmly to keep my sense of the profoundness and the reality of things.” So for the next four years he was still holding onto the chair in his barracks, and he wanted out as much as I did. I told him exactly how to do it, to believe in the Lord, actually believe in the Lord, and the Lord is my own wonderful I-am-ness.

So tonight if you could believe in the Lord, the Lord being your own wonderful Imagination. So when you go to bed, “I am” and you name it; and then to prove that you are in that state you see the world, and you see the world as it would be seen were you now the being that you want to be. You see it exactly as you would see it. And seeing it, you may not hear the words. When I told this story, I wrote it down in detail, and a friend of mine, being very, very practical, and he read my manuscript for me, he said, “Neville, may I delete the mystical aspects of this story, because someone reading it not knowing of you would think unless they had the experience, the mystical experience, it wouldn’t work.” I was persuaded by him not to incorporate it when I really should have incorporated it. You don’t have to hear the voice. If you believe in him, he acts anyway. In my case, my belief was so intense that I heard the voice and saw the paper and saw the hand and saw everything. It was God’s hand. It was God’s voice. And his voice is my voice. My own I-am-ness was speaking to myself. That’s God. There is no other God. God became man that man may become God. So he sunk himself in me as my own wonderful human Imagination. But he is still I AM. Go to them and tell them I AM that I AM. I AM has sent you unto them. Go and tell them. But if you hear the words or see the pictures, it doesn’t mean that he is more active in this case than he is if you do not hear his words or see the pictures. I tell you, you will bring about everything in this world if you believe in God. And God is your own wonderful human Imagination, and his name is I AM. That’s his name.

So this is the greater venture. One turned the fields…I am in the field of the battle, I went into the midst of the battle (this is the battle); and someone said to me, “Keep this man; but if by any means he is gone, then your life shall be for his life.” “And, O king, as I was busy here and there, he was gone.” Then the king said, “So shall it be unto you. You, yourself, have pronounced the judgment, the decision.” And so he was gone. I was so busy…maybe the morning’s paper, maybe the news on the radio or the TV, maybe some little rumor persuaded me that things aren’t as they ought to be—I’m going to lose my job when I get my Social Security—and I let the man go. I let him go…and then the judgment is upon myself. I tell you it is true—“Do not let me go.” Who is speaking? “I AM he,” said he. I want Jesus; I want the savior of the world. “I am he. Let these men go, but don’t let me go.” And the world thinks it’s some little being that dramatized this picture 2,000 years ago. This is the ___(??) drama. God actually sunk himself in humanity, became every child born of woman. God is in man as man’s own wonderful human Imagination. When he says, “I am,” that’s God. But he’s been taught to believe that there’s another God outside in space to whom he bows; and all orthodoxies the world over speak of another God, and worship the false God, and have built up fantastic things around some God that does not exist. The only God that exists dwells in man as man’s own wonderful human Imagination, that’s God.

And the day will come, may I tell you, every story told in scripture you will experience. Man must experience scripture for himself to know how wonderful it really is. In the depths of his soul he goes through this experience. On the next level it is this, the psychological level. On the level man simply goes through all the outer things that mean nothing, all the outer rituals and doctrines that mean absolutely nothing…not really to change his world. But below it, where we’re talking this night, it changes every thing in this world. As I stand before you, that’s exactly how I got out of the army. It was the year 1943 and the month was March. My friend was my age and he could have gotten out that very month, but he would not believe me. He did not believe in God. He thought he believed in God. And he wrote a book, and in this book he wrote a chapter on me, and he said, “Neville is an atheist.” Well, an atheist is one who does not believe in God. An agnostic is one who is on the verge, he doesn’t know whether he believes in God or not. He’s not against God, but he’s not yet convinced. But an atheist is a Khrushchev, one who does not believe in God.

I do not know of anyone who walks the face of this earth who believes more in God than I do. Because I stood in the presence of God and God is man: It is yourself personified. You meet yourself, and you can’t conceive of the beauty and the majesty and the glory of the being that you meet when you are brought into the presence of the ___(??), and you meet yourself: It is God. You’re embraced and incorporated into your very being. He went astray into a world for educative purposes. It’s an ever-expanding illumination that is God. So he simply assumed a limitation and projected himself in this limitation. Emptied himself of his original form and took upon himself the form of man, this limitation, and became obedient unto death, even death upon this cross (Phil.2:6). Finding himself in this form, he became obedient to all the limitations of the flesh. And one day he calls you back. You have gone through all of the hell of the world, all the fires he could ever conceive, and he brings you back. He brings you into his presence, and you stand in the presence of yourself. There’s nothing but God, only God. Every being in this world is God.

So I tell you, believe. Listen to the words, “Those who believe will not make haste.” I didn’t know it, I tell you. For those nine days in the army I walked as I walked on air, really I did. And when the world would say…well, as I told you earlier, one of the most difficult things in this world when one is anxious, has a wife, has a child he hasn’t seen in three months, a little child two months old, and you’re hungry to kiss and smell that little child, and the hunger for that embrace of a baby. For I do not know of any odor in this world comparable to the odor of a child, I do not know it. I can’t conceive of any odor—perfumes, flowers, all these things are lovely—but the odor of a baby. I personally know of no odor in the world more desirable than the odor of a baby. And here was this baby and I’m denied it, a thousand miles away. So, I simply lost myself and I performed the act.

So, listen to the words, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you all the desires of your heart. Commit your way (that is, your action) to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” So I did it. I assumed that I am in New York City. I am looking out on the world proving that I am in New York City, for were I in New York City I would see the world from New York City. So I saw it from New York City. I didn’t think of New York, I thought from New York, and slept in it. And that very night he acted. My intensity was so great, suddenly the paper comes before my face, he scratches out “Disapproved,” he writes in “APPROVED,” and then he speaks to me directly. Having said to me, “That which I have done I have done,” now believe it. “Do nothing.” And if you have ever gone through this you’ll know that it is the most difficult thing in this world when you are so anxious, to do nothing. And yet, there are moments as it was in my case when it was the only thing to do, to do nothing. And so I did nothing. And then, I didn’t appeal, he calls me nine days later and here I am that very day on a train to New York City.

So I tell you it will not fail you if you believe in God. If you think God is hanging on the wall, or if you think he is in some other place, you don’t know God. Listen to these words, the 3rd chapter of 1st Corinthians, the16th verse, it is that “the Spirit of God dwells in you…you are the temple of the living God.” The Spirit of God dwells in you…you are the temple of the living God. So the Spirit of God dwells in me and his name is I AM then I know who he is. I’m not going to walk down the street and tell people when I meet them, “Look at God.” No. He is not this garment; he dwells in this garment. He’s Spirit. He is not this thing that you see, he dwells in this that you see, and he’s my own wonderful human Imagination. When I meet him he’s myself…as I have met him…as you will one day.

So begin this night to believe in God. Believe in him more than anything else in this world; and not a thing can fail you if you believe in God. Try it. I could tell you unnumbered stories, but you try it. It’s far better if you had the story yourself. I could go on telling stories and you might say, well, he is more mystically inclined, maybe he is more so and so. Don’t let anyone persuade you that Neville is more God than you are. You can’t find a better God, a more God or less God than the God that is in you as I AM. Only one God: “So on that day the Lord will be one and his name one” (Zech.14:9). If he’s one and his name one, not one is better than the other. No one is better than the other. But we do not believe the same ___(??) in God, and billions of us don’t believe in the God; we believe in some little totem pole, something on the outside.

So you read carefully this night when you go home the passages that I have mentioned. Read the 28th of Isaiah, the 16th verse; the 37th Psalms, rather, the 4th and 5th verses; read the 20th chapter of the Book of 1st Kings; and something that I quoted earlier from the 18th chapter of John. “Whom do you seek?” “Whom do I seek? I seek Jesus.” “I am he.” And standing before you now the name is Neville. But the first one to discover the fatherhood of God was Jesus Christ. Its discovery came by the discovery of the Son. And so, the Son called him…called what…called Jesus Christ “Adonay.” May I tell you that in the end there is only Jesus Christ; and everyone who finds the Son and the Son calls him, as he will, “my Father” is Jesus Christ. So in that day the Lord will be one and his name one. There will be nothing but Jesus Christ, for Jesus means “Jehovah saves.” Nothing but Jehovah…and he saves himself. He sent himself fragmented into this world for a greater expansion of the being that he is. He brings it all back… and the name is Jesus Christ.

It’s a mystery, but you dwell upon it. Jesus Christ is the father of David. “What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he?” and they said, “The son of David.” “Why then did David in the Spirit call him Lord? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?” (Mat.22:42). So David calls him Father, and David is God’s only begotten son (Psalm 2:7). You must spiritualize the mission of David. So we see David—and we spiritualize the mission—who calls everyone who is awake Father. The one he first calls is Jesus Christ, and everyone thereafter though he’s called by other names is Jesus Christ.

Now let us go into the Silence.

Q: (inaudible)

A: The first beginning of tithing is when Abraham came back from the storeroom of the king that he tithed with Melchizadek. He gave Melchizadek a tenth portion of all that he had. And man today believes that if I give to charity ten per cent of what I earn, or I give to any organization that I love in this world that’s tithing God. It isn’t. Give to all the charitable organizations in this world that you love, that you admire, give it ___(??), but that’s not tithing of scripture. We’re told that if I tithe with God I get it back a hundred-fold. Whatever I assume that I am becomes magnified a hundred-fold, good, bad or indifferent. I give it to God. You’re told when you go into a church and you give a dollar you’re giving it to God, so the minister tells you. Then he puts it in his own bank and buys his own home, buys his clothes. No criticism of the minister, he was taught to believe that he could be the intermediary between you and God, and some ___(??) or other for himself, and he thinks that God has chalked it up to you. It isn’t so.

God is your own wonderful human Imagination—the tithing must be to God. So everything you assume as true you have given to God, good, bad or indifferent.When it comes back, it always comes back shaken down and multiplied, whatever you give. If you want to give to churches, give to churches. We give to charity. My wife and I send our little checks every year to three or four. The Red Cross always gets a check, other charities get a check, and so we give as members of society. We’re all members of this grand society, and so we contribute, based upon our income, a small amount. But that does not in any way qualify me for any return from God. I tithe with God when I assume that I am the man that I want to be. Or if I don’t assume it, I’m still tithing; I’m giving that…the negative state…and he gives it back to me multiplied.

Q: (inaudible)

A: ___(??) is the story of sacrifice, where animals were sacrificed, and the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies once a year, where he had to repeat the sacrifice of this blood…where the sacrificial story of Christ is not repeated (Heb. 9:3). In depth, when Christ actually awakes in man he enters into a place already prepared for him. For Christ in man is awakened. In that moment when he actually awakes and moves up—as we’re told in the 3rd chapter of John, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up”—when that is accomplished and you re-enter that place already prepared for you, you are fixed in it forever and forever. That is only once, you never return. But on this level, we can take the story, well, on a psychological level.I am crucifying Christ and shedding his blood every moment of time when anyone asks anything of me, because I will die to what he seems to be and I will live to what he wants to be. So I am shedding his blood all through the day. But the time will come when he actually tears that curtain and enters—as you’ll read in that 9th chapter and the 10th chapter of Hebrews. The curtain is torn from top to bottom, and then he goes up into heaven for once and forever. That will happen to every individual being in this world. Until that happens, when he actually tears that curtain and goes up, he is still in this world of Caesar, shedding his blood, transforming individuals into their dream fulfilled. So the 9th and 10th deals with the shedding of blood but the blood of Christ. And when you see it, may I tell you, it’s the most wonderful golden living liquid light. You see the blood…it isn’t blood, it’s gold, it’s liquid golden light. As you look at it, you know it is yourself. You are the blood of Christ that he shed for you, and you fuse with it. Fusing with it you become one with the blood of Christ, and up you go into the place prepared for you.

Goodnight.